A large landslide that closed a stretch of canyon road through the Santa Monica Mountains likely won't be cleared until fall, Caltrans said Thursday.
State Route 27, aka Topanga Canyon Boulevard, remains closed from Grand View Drive to Pacific Coast Highway after dirt, mud and rocks weighing an estimated 9.2 million pounds tumbled down a hillside onto the two-lane road during Southern California's winter storms. At about 80,000 cubic yards, that's enough to fill 5,500 dump trucks, Caltrans said.
In an update Thursday, the agency said the road will be cleared by fall, if everything goes well.
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Water is still seeping from underneath the slide, which indicates the pile of rocks and dirt could move again. Rain over the weekend of April 13 further saturated the unstable hillside above the road.
Another major slide occurred next to the current slide in the 1940s. The March 9 slide was twice the size.
Rocks and dirt must be removed from the top of the slide area down to the toe of the slope, Caltrans said. Removing the material from the toe up would raise the risk of bringing down more boulders, including one that is about 10 feet high with a crack and the weight of the hillside behind it.
Temporary signal lights are in place at Tuna Canyon Road and PCH.
